This is the question my friend, Mike Winstead—a charter member of our church who passed away recently—used as a segue to invite strangers to church. After all, we’re RockChurch, not Hip-HopChurch.

By the way, it didn’t even matter what the answer was—Mike would find an angle to move the conversation from music to church…and then he would pull out a RockChurch card and extend his warm invitation.

Did I mention he did this regularly for 19 years?

From our pre-launch vision meetings in 1998 to his last day on earth—just a few weeks ago—Mike served RockChurch in some capacity. He served as a trustee all 19 years, but most everyone from our church will remember him as “the nice man who always greeted me with a smile and genuinely wanted to talk to me.” He singlehandedly helped create RockChurch’s culture of love and acceptance.

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The feeding of the 5,000. It’s a familiar story, and sometimes familiarity with a text leads to dullness of hearing, but not this morning. This morning it felt like the words leapt off the screen and directly into my heart. “You give them something to eat.”

Earlier, Jesus had called his disciples away “to a remote place” so they could rest for a while. Things were so crazy in the ministry at that time that they didn’t even have time to eat!

So they went away. Well, they attempted to, anyway… but they couldn’t get away. Many saw them leaving via boat. They saw where they were heading and ran on foot and arrived ahead of them. And by the time Jesus and his disciples got to where they were going there was already a large crowd there. So much for some downtime!

Jesus looks at this large crowd and becomes frustrated and angry over this change of plans.

Just kidding

That’s not the way the story reads. That might have been my response or your response, but this is Jesus. Rather than being upset, it says that he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And so he spends his entire day that was set aside for rest to teach the people.

Now, to the part that got me this morning. After all this, it is getting late and the disciples are like, “We need to wrap this up, Jesus. This was a great day of ministry but we better send these folks on their way so they can buy themselves something to eat. I’m sure they are starving and if we don’t get them out of here they are going to end up in bad shape.”

And then Jesus, in that wonderful way that he had of not allowing circumstances to dictate his response looks at them and says, “YOU give them something to eat.”

Say what?

We know the rest of the story. With 5 loaves and 2 fish, Jesus feeds the masses. One of the most incredible miracles in all of Scripture. But what got me today was his statement. “You give them something to eat.”

Our world is hurting. They are coming to the Church for answers. Are we filled up enough with the Bread of Life to give them the spiritual food they are so desperately in need of? Or are we weak and spiritually anemic ourselves? You see the only way we can meet that need is if we ourselves are feeding on it ourselves.

We are living in a day of unprecedented distraction and this distraction is keeping us from spending time with the One who desires to fill us with all good things. To fill us with the fullness of the glory of God! And out of that overflow, to feed the hurting world around us.

My prayer today is this, I want to be so filled up on the Bread Of Life that I always have wonderful spiritual food to give to whoever needs it. This world is hungry!

Jesus’ words to his disciples are his words to you and me today. “You give them something to eat.”

Read Heb. 5:11. In it the author says his listeners are “dull of hearing”. What is the author talking about?

What do you think causes us to not be able to discern the voice of the Lord?

How can we keep our ears from becoming dull, so we don’t miss what the Holy Spirit is saying to us?

Read Heb. 5:12. It says that they have come to need milk and not solid meat. What’s going on here?

Do you feel like you are growing in your relationship with Jesus? Whether yes or no, explain why you feel the way you do

Read 6:4-6 Have you ever struggled with this portion of Scripture? If you have, has tonight’s study helped you navigate this better?

Read the main interpretations that believers have held about these verses over the centuries. After reading all 4, take some time to discuss each view. In the case of differing opinions remember to discuss gently and with respect

Interpretation #1: This passage states you can lose your salvation

Interpretation #2: This passage is hypothetical

Interpretation #3: The people he’s referring to were never saved in the first place

Interpretation #4: The people the author is referring to are apostates who at one time confessed Jesus but then turned their back on him and have in fact renounced Him.

In the verses we looked at in this study, what truth has had the most impact on you? Why?

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Jesus was under extreme and crushing pressure in the Garden of Gethsemane as he confirmed that he would stay the course and offer Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of all humanity. From His example, we learn how to stick with God’s plan while going through our hardest trials.

When in process, stick to the plan!

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14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. 16 Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. 17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them ~ John 13:14-17

The picture above is where I spent the last hour and a half communing and fellowshipping with God.

It’s been a challenging week. One of those weeks where you feel like there is something in the air. Something that just seems to make life harder.

Last night as I came home from the Bible study I get to teach every week, I had one of my favorite moments. It is what I call a boomerang moment. It’s the time when God takes the message I teach and/or preach, and turns around and speaks it to me. After spending a week in the text, by the time I teach it, it already has gotten deep in me. After teaching, my heart and mind are wide open to tune into the frequency of heaven.

Last night was just such a night. Like I said, this week was tough. But the message was all about The Posture. The Promise. And The Anchor. The posture of the believer – our default state, our “posture” according to the writer of Hebrews is to be faith and patience. The promises of God give us an unshakable hope which is an Anchor for our soul. And the anchor is moored to our Great High Priest, Jesus – our Forerunner who has gone before us and is behind the veil of the heavenly temple and at the right hand of the very Throne of God.

Faith, patience, promises, anchor, Jesus. Last night as I drove home God boomeranged me with this message. Don’t let go of that hope. And if it gets harder, hold fast all the more.

An anchor at its essence is something that connects a movable object to an immovable one, and in so doing makes the movable become immovable itself.

I like that. I am holding on. I am movable, but my Lord is not – and linked up to Him, I become immovable myself.

On this Holy Thursday that initiates the Washing of the Feet, the Last Supper, the Garden of Gethsemane, the Crucifixion, and finally the Resurrection, my prayer is that you have found that same anchor and are holding on to it as well.

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Melody Papazis at the Center for Care and Discovery with her son Lance and husband Chris

While looking for something else, we stumbled upon an action-packed blog post by a patient with virulent, relentless asthma who was rescued by her UChicago physicians using a treatment with a scary name, but a comforting outcome. Her story also involves a tornado. Below, in her own words (slightly trimmed for space), Melody Papazis, RN, tells her harrowing tale.

For most of my life, it seemed like constant coughing and chest tightness would be a daily occurrence. When I was 14, my deep, dry cough caught the attention of a pediatric pulmonologist. I had asthma. I had it bad. He prescribed inhalers. This helped. During high school, I only landed in the hospital once.

In nursing school, I went on a home-health visit. The house was infested with cockroaches. I learned that day that…